Along with the development of information technology, the Internet has entered into the people's work, study and life, and brought great advantages for people's communication. Generally, a network system consists of servers and clients.
Refer to FIG. 1 which is a schematic diagram illustrating a network system. The system consists of server 910, a first client 920 and a second client 930; wherein, the first client 920 and the second client 930 both have a data channel with Server 910, the first client 920 may also directly exchange data with the second client 930.
In a network system, a user usually identifies itself using some manners, for example an image provided by an instant communication system. This image for indicating a user identity is also called a head-image.
Refer to FIG. 2 which illustrates a conventional method described for providing a user with a head-image. The method comprises the following steps:
Step S100: a server sends to a first client and a second client a series of fixed images which are displayed to users for choosing an image;
Step S110 and Step S120: the first client and the second client save the fixed image sequence respectively.
Step S111: the user of the first client selects an image as its head-image from the series of images provided;
Step S112: the first client sends the head-image setting information (an image index number) to the server;
Step S113: the server saves the head-image setting information.
When a user of the second client views the user information of the first client, Step S121 is performed, i.e. the second client sends a request to the server for the user head-image index information, i.e. the head-image setting information, of the first client;
Step S122: the server receives and resolves the request information;
Step S123: the server sends the user head-image setting information to the second client;
Step S124: the second client displays a corresponding image according to the head-image setting information.
In this method, the server provides a series of fixed images, and a user only can select a favorable one from such images as his head-image, which impacts experience of the user. Along with the deployment of network communication, fixed system head-images are unable to meet requirements increasingly.
FIG. 3 illustrates the conventional method for implementing a personalized head-image. Referring to FIG. 3, when a first client communicates with a second client, the method includes the following steps:
Step S211: user of the first client selects his personalized head-image which is directed to an image taken by a user using a digital camera or found from the Internet, selected by a user.
Step S212: the first client notifies the second client the head-image is changed by sending a head-image change message.
Step S213: the second client receives and resolves the head-image change message.
Step S214: the second client requests the first client to send an image file of the changed head-image.
Step S215: upon receiving the head-image file request of the second client, the first client sends an image file to the second client.
Step S216: the second client changes and displays the head-image of the opposing party according to the received image.
since a user selects a personalized image optionally, the selected image file may infringe others' intellectual property rights (for example the rights of copyright); and since the image file is transmitted between clients in a Point-to-Point (P2P) manner, it is difficult for the network system to determine whether the image selected by the user has infringed others' intellectual property rights, which makes it impossible to protect the intellectual property rights of image file effectively. The same problem also occurs in the embodiment as shown in FIG. 2, since a series of fixed images are saved in the client in the embodiment as shown in FIG. 2 and the server side only manages the index of image, the server is unable to manage the propagation path of images and to determine whether the image selected by the user has infringed others' intellectual property rights, which makes it impossible to protect the intellectual property rights of image file effectively.
Likewise, it is impossible to protect the intellectual property rights effectively when other data, for example ring tone, music, literature to be protected by the intellectual property rights, are transmitted between clients of network system in P2P manner.